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State Intervention in Argentina's Export Trade between the Wars1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Roger Gravil
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Extract

Since the dramatic widening of the international economy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century foreign capital and enterprise have played a prominent role in the export trades of the primary producing countries. That so much initiative should have come from outside is not surprising since the timing of the entry of these countries into world markets was determined by the demands of the industrial nations rather than by their own level of commercial preparation. The establishment of foreign businesses inevitably brought mixed reactions in the host countries, stemming from the recognition that, while local capital and enterprise could not cope with the sudden commercial expansion, foreign interests were in a position to exploit that very fact. Primary producing countries, therefore, sought to impose statutory regulations on export companies designed to safeguard the producers and, more generally, to harmonize business operations with the government's conception of the national interest.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , November 1970 , pp. 147 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

2 The fullest list for 1920 appears in Pearce, A. W., The World's Meat Future (2nd ed., London, 1920)Google Scholar, and for 1930 in Richelet, Juan A., A Defence of Argentine Meat (Buenos Aires, 1930)Google Scholar, based on the Argentine Government's List for compulsory meat stamping. The consumption figures are from Smith, Peter H., Politics & Beef in Argentina (New York, 1969), p. 38.Google Scholar

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13 This did not prevent co-operatives from owning elevators; it simply meant that they did not control the complete network. By the mid-1960s there were some 200 societies operating elevators, silos and flour mills. Spaull, Hebe, The Cooperative Movement in the World Today (London, 1965), p. III.Google Scholar

14 Tornquist, Banco, Business Conditions in the Argentine Republic, Report No. 201 (01 1934), p. 22Google Scholar. British Chamber of Commerce in the Argentine Republic, Monthly Journal, 14 (31 01 1934), 19Google Scholar. In Oct. 1931 the Argentine Government introduced exchange control. From Nov. 1933 the ‘exporters rate’ was set at 15 pesos to the £. The ‘importers rate’ (for those with prior permits) represented the average of what collectively they were prepared to pay, which was generally 17–18 pesos to the £. The government admitted making a profit of 91 million pesos in the first nine months. This was used partly to finance state assistance to the export trades.

15 These bodies successively amalgamated and the present Junta Nacional de Granos was established in 1956.

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25 Sociedad Rural Argentina, Boletín de Divulgación, No. 5, Año. 1932.Google Scholar

26 Banco de la Nación Argentina, Revista Económica, 5 (3) (04 1932), 60Google Scholar, shows that England's imports of Brazilian chilled beef rose from 1,070 tons in 1926 to 30,500 tons in 1931 and Uruguayan chilled from 35,000 tons in 1926 to 39,550 tons in 1931.

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32 The northern littoral includes Corrientes province; gobernaciones of Chaco; Formosa, Misiones; departamentos of Entre Rios province: Colón, Concordia, Federación, Feliciano, La Paz, Nogoya, Paraná, Rosario Tala, Villaguay; departamentos of Santa Fé province: Castellanos, Garay, General Obligado, Capital, Las Colonias, Nueve de Julio, San Cristóbal, San Javier, San Justo, Vera.

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35 Kelly, Ruth, ‘The Foreign Trade of Argentina and Australia, 1930–1960 (II)’, Economic Bulletin for Latin America, 10, No. 2, 10 1965, 191.Google Scholar

36 Extracted from Analisis y proyecciones del desarrollo económico: V. El desarrollo económico de la Argentina; Parte 2, Los sectores de la producción. Naciones Unidas (Mexico, 1959), p. 12.Google Scholar

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40 Bank of London and South America Ltd, Fortnightly Review 3 (No. 35, 29 01 1938), p. 28.Google Scholar

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42 Clearly there was extensive expropriation under Perón (though even he paid handsomely for much of what he took) but the argument is that 1943 was precisely when Argentina decisively broke away from the pattern of development of broadly comparable countries.